This present invention relates generally to boats and other water craft or vessels, and more particularly to a liquid sensing sensor for detecting bilge.
In general, most boats, regardless of the material or construction and fabrication, have a tendency to take on a certain amount of water when floating in a body of water. For the most part, water entering a boat hull tends to accumulate in the lower portion of the hull usually referred to as the “bilge.” While small amounts of water within the bilge of a boat is a tolerable and generally common condition, extensive water collection within a bilge of a boat hull is extremely undesirable and may, if left unattended, prove dangerous or even catastrophic.
Bilge pumps are typically used to pump excess water from the bilge. In general, a bilge pump switch, activates and deactivates a bilge pump in response to predetermined water levels in the bilge. However, in the past, bilge pump switches have been unreliable mechanical “float-type” switches that stick causing the bilge pump to remain “on” or remain “off”. Electronic switches, while having no moving parts, exhibited the same issues, i.e., they either “stick on,” keeping the bilge pump running indefinitely due to a high conductivity of soapy water used to clean a vessel, or never turn the pump on, due to low conductivity which comes as the result of oil mixed with water commonly found in the bilge.
What is needed is a liquid sensing switch that overcomes the shortcomings pointed out above.